Lana Cohen

Press Herald

Lana covers education for the Portland Press Herald. She joins the Press Herald from VTDigger, where she covered Chittenden County, Vermont’s population center. Previously she was a Report for America fellow in Mendocino County, covering environmental news for a digital outlet and a public radio station. She also reported on the environment for digital news outlet, WhoWhatWhy. In her spare time Lana enjoys hiking with her Goldendoodle, Rigby, running, surfing and baking.

Latest

Published
March 10, 2023

University of Maine System lifts COVID vaccine mandate

The system is still encouraging community members to get vaccinated and boosted.
Published
March 10, 2023

Final batch of $450 relief checks is in the mail

All 876,000 relief checks had been mailed as of Thursday, the Mills administration announced Friday.
Published
March 6, 2023

Legislators urged to help eligible students pay for University of Maine tuition

Educators and advocates urged the Legislature’s education and cultural affairs committee to support 50% tuition vouchers for UMaine System schools for some Maine residents.
Published
March 5, 2023

Free community college program pulls students from UMaine System

A Maine lawmaker would expand upon the free tuition initiative to help prevent the enrollment declines at the state’s public universities from getting any worse.
Published
March 1, 2023

Maine may lose federal funds over student testing shift

The U.S. Department of Education says the state has not conducted the legally required student assessments to receive funding for low-income students, but state officials are challenging the decision.
Published
March 1, 2023

School librarians fight legislation to ban books considered obscene

A bill to make public schools subject to Maine’s anti-obscenity law has inspired librarians to organize to protect access to books and other materials.
Published
February 25, 2023

At UMaine, back on campus but still online for many classes

Some learners chafe at lost in-class experiences; others appreciate remote flexibility. For now, the university system doesn’t seem ready to reverse its pandemic-era shift.
Published
February 24, 2023

Lawsuit indicates former Bowdoin trustee had close relationship with sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein

Former Bowdoin College trustee James “Jes” Staley exchanged more than 1,000 emails with late sex-trafficker and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including some with sexual content and photos of young women, according to newly unredacted portions of a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. filed in federal court. Staley is a Bowdoin alum who has lived […]
Published
February 14, 2023

Maine public school enrollment makes small rebound

The increase for a second year in a row followed years of steady decline and a significant drop at the beginning of the pandemic.
Published
February 6, 2023

National group threatens lawsuit against Maine school district over gender policy

The Goldwater Institute says the Damariscotta-area district is guilty of violating parental rights because it did not tell a student’s mother that her child wanted to be identified as a boy instead of a girl.